June 10, 2015: GSA, the Global mobile Suppliers Association, today confirms that LTE subscriptions continue to grow faster than any other mobile communications system technology. Analysing Q1 2015 subscriptions data provided by Ovum Ltd, GSA noted that in 3 successive quarters LTE sub scription net additions have outpaced any other mobile communications technology.
There were 635 million LTE subscriptions worldwide on 31 March 2015.
Alan Hadden, Vice President of Research, GSA said: "382 million LTE subscriptions were gained in the past year, equivalent to an impressive 151.4% annual growth, and is driven by demand for an improved user experience of mobile broadband and the wider access to smartphones. Deployment of LTE-Advanced systems is a major industry trend. GSA forecasts the market will grow to over 1 billion LTE subscriptions worldwide by the end of 2015.â€
LTE subscriptions increased by 123.7 million in Q1 2015, which is over 58% higher than for 3G/WCDMA-HSPA gaining 77.9 million. GSM subscriptions fell 100 million in the quarter.
APAC increased its share of global LTE subscriptions to 49%, compared to 38% one year previously.
North America remains the second largest LTE market though its share fell t o 28.3% of global LTE subscriptions, compared with 45% a year earlier. Europe is steadily building share and stands at 16.4%.
Strong growth was seen in the Latin America and Caribbean region which now has over 16 million 4G/LTE subscriptions and is over 13 million higher than a year ago, equivalent to 396% annual growth. A strong performance for LTE was also achieved in the Middle East with annual growth of 240%. Russia is another fast-growing LTE market achieving 4x growth in the number of its LTE subscriptions over the past year.
By March 2015 China had 162 million LTE subscriptions, having gained 64 million in Q1.
393 operators have commercially launched LTE systems in 138 countries, according to GSA data announced in April 2015. GSA forecasts there will be 460 commercially launched LTE networks by end 2015. A further update will be released this month. Deployment of LTE-Advanced technologies is a major industry trend in all regions. 116 operato rs, i.e. around 30% of LTE operators are investing in LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation technology worldwide and are at various stages of deployment. Approaching 1 in 6 LTE operators have commercially launched service on LTE-Advanced systems (64 launched).
The number of LTE subscriptions is expected to reach around 3.7 billion by the end of 2020, and at that time should pass the 3G/WCDMA-HSPA global base.
Charts confirming the LTE subscriptions growth and regional shares are available via the GSA website http://www.gsacom.com